Curtal Long Hymnal Stanza

Curtal Long Hymnal Stanza

Type:	Structure, Metrical Requirement, Rhyme Scheme Requirement, Stanzaic
Description:	A stanzaic form composed of three lines of iambic tetrameter and one of iambic dimeter rhymed abab.
Schematic:	xX xX xX xA xX xX xX xB xX xX xX xA xX xB

Pasted from <http://www.poetrybase.info/forms/000/63.shtml>

My Thanks to Charles L. Weatherford for the wonderful PoetryBase resource.

My Example Poem

My All   (Curtal Long Hymnal Stanza)

I must now be

in total thrall;

demand from me

my all.

I'll give no less,

for when inspired

I know my best's

required.

And if I fail

the lack's my own.

I'll guzzle ale

alone.

© Lawrencealot - April 30, 2014

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Cyrch a Chwta

Cyrch a Chwta

Type:	Structure, Metrical Requirement, Rhyme Scheme Requirement, Stanzaic
Description:	(kirch a choota) An octave of seven-syllable lines rhymed aaaaaaba with cross-rhyme of b in the third, fourth, or fifth syllable of line 8.
Origin:	Welsh
Schematic:	Rhyme: aaaaaaba Meter: xxxxxxx xxxxxxa xxxxxxa xxxxxxa xxxxxxa xxxxxxa xxxxxxa xxxxxxb xxbxxxa or xxxbxxa or xxxxbxa
Rhythm/Stanza Length:	8

Pasted from <http://www.poetrybase.info/forms/000/69.shtml>

My thanks to Charles L. Weatherford for his fine Poetrybase resource.

Example Poem

My Tree     (Cyrch a Chwta)

My dad went to war, but he

took time first to plant a tree

when I was a baby, wee.

Dad never came back to me,

he perished when I was three.

I learned of him at mom's knee

That tree gave shade, let me swing.

That's something dad knew would be.

© Lawrencealot - April 24, 2014

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Long Octave

Long Octave

Type:	Structure, Metrical Requirement, Rhyme Scheme Requirement, Stanzaic
Description:	An octave of iambic tetrameter with rhyme scheme abcbabcb.
Schematic:	Line rhythm: xX xX xX xX Rhyme scheme: abcbabcb
Rhythm/Stanza Length:	8
See Also:	Common Measure, Common Octave, Long Measure, Octave
Status:	Incomplete

Pasted from <http://www.poetrybase.info/forms/001/172.shtml>

My thanks to Charles L. Weatherford for his fine Poetrybase resource.

Example poem

Recruiting      (Long Octave)

When Maude and I were at the park

just chatting calmly on a bench,

two half-dressed trollops happened by

(I think perhaps that they were French),

it wasn't close to getting dark.

They asked, "We've many thirsts to quench.

and one's a friendly older guy;

would you take care of him by chance?"

© Lawrencealot - April 21, 2014

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Streambed's Ripple

Streambed's Ripple a form created by Lillibet known on Allpoetry as Streambed.

It is:

Stanzaic: Written in 3 ten line stanzas

Syllabic: 10/8/10/8/10/10/10/8/10/8

Refrain:  Requires the last half of L5 to repeat in each stanza

Rhymed: xaxaBbxaxa xcxcBbxcxc xdxdBbxdxd

Metric: Written in iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter

Example poem

Love's Corset     (Streambed's Ripple)

For centuries we have believed

the attributes of form

as they relate to motherhood

ought be considered norm.

So bind yourself with stays and lace

before you paint or rouge your face.

For parturition hips must be

expanded, round and warm.

The breasts to suckle one or more

are ample to conform.

A standard then however wrought

in western cultures seem

to drive the fashion engines to

promote this female scheme.

So women then with stays and lace

constrict themselves so men will chase.

But girls have found and boys have too

that essence reigns supreme,

and being kind and being true

is what will fuel love's dream.

Once one is found to share your heart,

then regulate your mind

and recognize that devotion

provides the stays that bind.

I'll bind my love with stays and lace

to make sure romance stays in place

and corset non-complying thoughts

and set them far behind.

For nothing fits the human soul

like lovers so aligned.

© Lawrencealot - April 19, 2014

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Bref Double

Bref Double

Type:	Structure, Rhyme Scheme Requirement, Isosyllabic
Description:	A fourteen-line French form. Like many French forms, the rules are a bit complex. It is composed of three quatrains and a couplet, all isosyllabic. It has three rhymes: a, b, and c. It has five lines that are not part of the rhyme scheme. The c rhyme ends each quatrain. The a and b rhymes are found twice each somewhere within the three quatrains and once in the couplet.
Impressions:	Have fun; it's French.
Origin:	French
Schematic:	Some sample rhyme schemes would be: abxc abxc xxxc ab, xaxc xbxc xbac ba, xabc xaxc xbxc ab, etc.
Rhythm/Stanza Length:	4
Line/Poem Length:	14

Pasted from <http://www.poetrybase.info/forms/000/25.shtml>

My thanks to Charles L. Weatherford for his fine Poetrybase resource.

My example poem

A Merchant Mariner     (Bref Double)

A soliloquy mumbled while aboard a ship

addressed issues encountered by conscripted men:

the comforts found in surroundings I'd known, no thoughts

of danger real or imagined- not everyday.

With thoughts of carnality, adventure, hardship,

rewards of sharing bounty, succeeding and then

returning home after I've traveled, unraveled

the wonderful mystr'ies that might hold me in sway.

The captain, querulous, demands most constant yield

from every man. The old first  mate so hates the king

he wrings more than mere duty from men on his watch.

The nation we're helping will repay us some day.

I came home a hero. It was quite a long trip.

But now that those days are passed, I'd do it again.

© Lawrencealot - April 18, 2014

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Sapphic Stanza

The Sapphic Stanza is classic Aeolic verse and attributed to the poetess Sappho 6 BC, Greece. Plato so admired her that he spoke of her not as lyricist, poet but called her the 10th Muse. Her poems spoke of relationships and were marked by emotion. In a male dominated era she schooled and mentored women artists on the island of Lesbos and her writing has often been equated with woman-love. "Rather than addressing the gods or recounting epic narratives such as those of Homer, Sappho's verses speak from one individual to another." NPOPP. 

Sappho's work has often been referred to as fragments, because only two of her poems have survived in whole with the vast majority of her work surviving in fragments either from neglect, natural disasters, or possible censorship.

Sapphic Stanza is:

• quantitative verse, measuring long / short vowels. In English we transition to metric measure of stress / unstressed syllables which warps the rhythm a bit but brings it into context the English ear can hear. L= long s = short
• stanzaic, written in any number of quatrains. This evolved to a quatrain during the Renaissance period from the ancient variable 3 to 4 line stanzas. The quatrain is made up of 3 Sapphic lines followed by an Adonic line which is usually written as a parallel to L3.
  Sapphic line = 11 syllables, trochaic with the central foot being a dactyl
  Adonic line = 5 syllables, a dactyl followed by a trochee
  (see below for more detail on these two components)
• The modern Sapphic scansion should look like this (Stressed or Long = L; unstressed or short = s )
  Quantitative Verse (L=long syllable * s=short syllable)
  Ls-Ls-Lss-Ls-Ls
  Ls-Ls-Lss-Ls-Ls
  Ls-Ls-Lss-Ls-Ls
  Lss-Ls
  
  with substituted spondee
  Ls-Ls-Lss-Ls-LL
  Ls-Ls-Lss-Ls-LL
  Ls-Ls-Lss-Ls-LL
  Lss-Ls
• originally unrhymed, in the Middle Ages the stanza acquired rhyme, rhyme scheme abab. Because of the predominant use of trochee and dactyls the rhyme will generally be feminine or a 2 syllable rhyme with the last syllable unstressed.

• Adonic line is most often written as a parallel to a previous line. It is the last line of the Sapphic stanza. It is composed in 5 syllables, a dactyl followed by a trochee. It can also be found as a pattern for the refrain in song to honor Adonis, from which it derived its name.
  "death has come near me."
  last line of Like the gods
  . . . by Sappho 4th century BC
  edited by Richmond Lattimore
  Quantitative Verse
  Lss-Ls
  Meaningless prattle. ---jvg

• Sapphic line -Since the Renaissance period the Sapphic line has been recognized as being a 5 foot trochaic line with the central foot being a dactyl. Prior to the Renaissance period this 11 syllable trochaic pattern was known as the "lesser" Sapphic line and the Sapphic line was a combination of the lesser Sapphic line and an adonic line.
  
  After Renaissance Sapphic line Ls-Ls-Lss-Ls-Ls : Passion, lust, consumed our beginnings fully.
  Prior to Renaissance Sapphic line Ls-Ls-Lss-Ls-Ls,- Lss Ls : greed to love? It happened deceptively, tricking emotions.
  Apparently, the technical terms of "lesser" Sapphic and Sapphic lines have been corrupted over time.

Pasted from http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=1240#adonic

My Thanks to Judi Van Gorder for the wonderful resource at PMO

I am restating the specifications for the 21st century English writing poets, knowing full well that academicians may insist we have corrupted Sappho's use of long and short vowel sounds.  A real poet might strive to make those sounds and the syllabic accents coincide, then none can argue.

A Sapphic Stanza is:

Stanzaic, consisting of any number of quatrains.

Syllabic, each stanza consisting 3 Sapphic Lines plus a Adonic line.

Metrical.  The Sapphic lines being trochaic with the central foot being a dactyl (11 syllables), and

          The Adonic lines being a dactyl followed by a trochee (5 syllables)

Rhymed, the pattern being abab.

Example Poem

Quantitative Verse       (Sapphic Stanza)

Seek out passion, write of the trials that poets

face, with no complaint but with guidance, using

items neither trite nor near dying, so it's

true and amusing.

© Lawrencealot - April 17, 2014

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In this example I have tried to make each accented syllable also use an English long vowel sound.

Zejel

Zejel

The zejel is a Spanish form which my Spanish friends have not heard of. They tell me though that it is pronounced the-hell, with the stress on the second syllable. (How the hell do they know?)

My example in this form is about how men can't help thinking about sex. I hope this doesn't offend anyone, and get me a reputation as a male chauvinist pig. As I'm always saying, the opinions expressed in the poem are not necessarily those of the poet himself. (See also my Masefield parody.) 

I checked on the web how many times a day men are reputed to think about sex. The consensus seemed to be that it was about 200. The lowest figure came from the Ladies Home Journal, which said "4 or 5". The highest came from the film Simply Irresistible, which says 278 - apparently it uses this as a running gag. (One site actually topped this with a claim of "every 8 seconds", which works out at 450 times an hour, but I think that writer may have been shooting from the hip, as it were.)

Anyway, here's the poem: 

Proposition

Mostly, sex tops men’s agenda.

I’m not one to buck the trend - a

Red-blooded repeat offender.

Hurrying for the morning train,

Spirit not damped by teeming rain,

There’s only one thing on my brain:

All the time I think of gender.

At the office, deep in filing,

Boredom on frustration piling,

Even then, a woman smiling

Makes me feel all warm and tender.

Are you female and eighteen plus?

A good sport and adventurous?

We have a great deal to discuss.

Come back to my hacienda!

The first stanza, known as the mudanza, has three lines, rhyming aaa. All the other stanzas - as many of them as you like - have 4 lines, rhyming bbba, the a rhyme harking back to the first stanza. So the overall rhyming scheme for the poem is aaa/bbba/ccca/ddda/...

Colloquial language tends to be used, and 8-syllable lines are usual (though not obligatory), so that's what I've used here. I have interpreted the term "8-syllable line" to mean "a line with 8 syllables", and I suggest that you should do the same. However, in Spanish poetry syllable-counting works differently, and the term "8-syllable line" is liable to be interpreted as "a line in which the last stressed syllable is the seventh"; such a line might have 7 syllables, or 8, or 9, or even more. (I wonder whether the Spanish write haiku?)Pasted from <http://volecentral.co.uk/vf/zejel.htm>

Thanks to Bob Newman for his wonderful Volecentral resource site.

Example Poem

Toothless Smile      (Zejel)

The tortoise lived out on a heath

with only sage to hide beneath

his home he never could bequeath.

While I am taxed for my household

and pay and pay until I'm old,

and shall until I'm dead and cold

and I'm ensconced beneath a wreath.

My brilliant smile was once okay,

before my teeth all went away;

my progeny will have to say,

"He kept his house but lost his teeth."

© Lawrencealot - April 16, 2014

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Ronsarian Ode

Ronsardian Ode

The Ronsardian ode (named after Pierre de Ronsard 1524-1585) is the only kind of ode that specifies a particular rhyming scheme - ababccddc, with syllable counts of 10, 4, 10, 4, 10, 10, 4, 4, 8. 

In the present rather windy economic climate, I thought an owed might be appropriate.

Owed to the Bank

I rue the day when I picked up the phone

(Connected then)

And asked them to advance me a small loan.

Never again!

The moment the transaction was arranged,

The pattern of my entire life was changed.

More than I’d guessed,

The interest

Mounts up. I must have been deranged.

Eleven thousand pounds I owe, they say.

That’s quite a debt.

I swear I’ll pay it back to them one day,

But not just yet.

Meanwhile I need a place to lay my head,

A jug of wine perhaps, a loaf of bread.

Then there’s my wife...

For normal life

Can’t stop because I’m in the red.

I’ve hardly slept since this nightmare began.

I lie awake,

Find fatal flaws in every single plan

I try to make -

But last night all my ideas seemed to gel.

I’ll find another job; all will be well.

A banking post

Will pay the most.

Why’s that? It’s not too hard to tell.

Ah, life as a teller. It's a tempting thought. I think there should probably be a fourth stanza, but as yet there isn't. Sorry.

I bought a book of Ronsard’s selected poems, and it didn’t include a single Ronsardian ode. So some further research may be called for.

Pasted from <http://volecentral.co.uk/vf/ronsard.htm>

Thanks to Bob Newman for his wonderful Volecentral resource site.

My example poem

Ode to a Creek        (Ronsarian Ode)

The little creek was built to irrigate

so men could farm.

Thus, daily men would rise to raise some gate

when days were warm.

Those summer days the creek would draw the  boys

away from practiced games and silly toys

to share the breeze

with brush and trees

that lined the creek, contained their noise.

The larger boys had tied a swinging rope

on which we played

and dropped to take our daily bath sans soap,

quite unafraid.

When swing and drop became at last mundane

up to that branch we'd boldly climb again

into two feet

it seemed so neat,

we bore our scratches with disdain.

One fall they warned we could not swim nor fish

White poison flowed

and fish preceded it; to live their wish.

Death was bestowed

on parasites and all the mossy growth.

But all the neighbor boys I knew were loath

to think them right

when deadly white

killed life and our short season both.

When winter came a fragile sheet of ice

made young boys bold

for they could walk across it once or twice

when it was cold.

They'd taunt the older boys and wouldn't care

how fast were bigger kids who'd chase them there.

The small ones knew

just what to do;

The bigs fell through most anywhere.

I cannot tell now where that creek had been;

growth needs, I guess.

New roads exist that hadn't been there then,

such is progress.

That creek's as gone as are my boyhood years.

but still the memories of it endears.

It served its roles

and other goals

before it bowed and disappeared.

© Lawrencealot - April 15, 2014

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Brevee

• The Brevee  is a terse list of related rhymes. One more verse form that appears to be invented as a learning tool, it was created by Marie Adams.
  
  The Brevee is:
• stanzaic, written in any number of sixains.
• syllabic, L1 L2 L4 L5 are 2 syllables each line and L3 & L6 are 4 syllables each.
• rhymed, rhyme scheme aabccb ddeffe.
• Cold by Judi Van Gorder
  Little
  brittle
  fragments of ice
  splinter
  winter
  ski paradise.

Pasted from http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=1882#baccresieze

•  

My Thanks to Judi Van Gorder for the wonderful resource at PMO

Specifications restated:

Stanzaic:  Any number of sestets

Syllabic: 2/2/4/2/2/4

Rhymed: aabccb

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Swinburne Decastitch

This form combining the rhyming pattern of an interrupted Petrachan Sonnet, with the breathing  cadence of common meter may have somewhere been used before, but it was definitely used and captured for us by Algernon Charles Swinburne in his "A Ballad of Death".

I merely record it here and give it a name by which we can refer as we attempt to write such poems of our own.

It is stanzaic, consisting of any number of stanzas.

It is Syllabic: 10/10/6/10/10/10/6/10/10/10

It is Rhymed: abbacdecde

It is composed in iambic meter.

Example Poem

Cultural Patrimony     (Swinburne Decastitch)

When any culture deems it right to maul

and kill, inflicting pain, can you explain

away my great disdain?

Can you excuse the citizens and all

who legislate and rule who use as tool

the very worst impulses of man's mind?

Against such things let's rail!

We simply cannot fool ourselves- it's cruel

to torment any species that we find.

With that in mind I'd like to tell this tale.

Young boys are often wooed by danger's taunt

and while still teens endeavor to learn skills

to please the crowds with thrills.

'Tis machismo alone that these boys flaunt,

and doubtlessly they want to earn the fame

accruing to the greatest in this "sport"

so fam'lies can be proud.

And many boys who play this dangerous game

will end up lame or have their life cut short

where death and torture's commonly allowed.

In training some are killed or truly maimed.

and never set their feet into bull's ring.

This is an honored thing!

But culture failing still persists unnamed,

where people think this cost perhaps is small;

and small it well may be when men have learned

compassion has no role.

If humankind is not herewith appalled

by acts dispensing pain where it's unearned

each man accepts canker on his soul.

When man pits bull against a lion foe,

again to entertain and titillate,

we each should fee self-hate.

The gladiator games we must outgrow,

like burning ants and pulling off fly's wings.

Each species may do harsh things to survive.

But evil has its cost.

When man accepts it's right to torture things

which share our space and roam our earth alive,

compassion for all life will soon be lost.

© Lawrencealot - April 13, 2014

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Dansa

Dansa

The dansa is an Occitan verse form i.e. it's from the troubadour territory of southern France. All the verses except the first are the same: they rhyme aabb with the last line a repeated refrain. The first verse has five lines, and consists of the refrain followed by four lines similar to all the other verses. No particular metre is essential, but Skelton says six-syllable lines are common in Occitan verse, so that's what I used.

A Load of Rot

Mulching is the future!

Let those clippings lie there,

Proving how much you care.

For lawns needing nurture,

Mulching is the future.

Don’t clear up that cut grass!

Lie down; let the urge pass.

Be at one with nature -

Mulching is the future.

You need no-one’s pardon;

This is your own garden.

For your private pasture,

Mulching is the future.

Your leisure is well-earned.

Relax; don’t be concerned.

Look, see the big picture:

Mulching is the future.

What you leave will decay.

It will provide one day

Nutrients and moisture.

Mulching is the future.

Don’t get up; better far

To stay right where you are.

As with any creature,

Mulching is your future.

I saw a lawnmower on sale with the slogan "Mulching is the future". I found it a catchy slogan but a depressing thought. Still, there had to be a poem in it... It was just a question of finding a suitable verse form. I think the dansa was a fair choice.

I cheated slightly by altering one word in the final repetition of the refrain.  Poetic licence.

Pasted from <http://volecentral.co.uk/vf/dansa.htm>

Thanks to Bob Newman for his wonderful Volecentral resource site.

My example poem-

Since Bob used a slogan, I did too.

Intrigue     (Dansa)

Does she? Or doesn't she?

If you but only knew.

Instead you have no clue.

So what is it to be?

Does she? Or doesn't she?

A guy, you can just ask,

it's such a simple task

It can't sound like a plea,

Does she? Or doesn't she?

Why should you really care

what color is her hair.

But when it comes to me,

Does she? Or doesn't she?

© Lawrencealot - April 12, 2014

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Deibide Baise Fri Toin

Deibide Baise Fri Toin

A similar name, but not much in common with the common-or-garden deibide, apart from being Irish. I don't know how to pronounce this one, or the literal meaning of its name, but here's what the verse form looks like:

Against Vegetation

Move! Without

doubt it helps to get about.

Except for triffids, a plant

can’t.

Poor daisies!

In peril as cow grazes,

prospects of survival not

hot.

Such fodder

can't flee even a plodder;

inferior to the least

beast.

No better,

the shiftless non-go-getter,

potato sat on a couch.

Ouch!

The syllable count is 3, 7, 7, 1 and it rhymes aabb. It is essential to the form that the a rhymes have two syllables, and the b rhymes have one syllable. There are a fair number of Irish forms - some of them with longer and more unpronounceable names - and most of them stipulate the type of rhyme as precisely as this.

Pasted from <http://volecentral.co.uk/vf/deibhidhe.htm>

Thanks to Bob Newman for his wonderful Volecentral resource site.

My example poem

Wet Cats     (Deibide Baise Fri Toin)

Don't worry

although they're sometimes furry

it's okay to get a pet

wet.

Don't insist

on fresh fish they can't resist;

cats can convert once they've tried

fried.

I'm inclined

to think cats are not refined,

but just aloof. I don't know

though.

© Lawrencealot - April 11, 2014

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